NYC students use Minecraft to reimagine inclusive, sustainable spaces in citywide challenge

The all-girl team at P.S 86 marks their second year participating in the Minecraft Education Challenge.

Courtesy P.S. 86

While individuals must earn a college degree and pass several exams to become a civil engineer, New York City public school students are ahead of the curve. 

Through the Minecraft Education Challenge Battle of the Boroughs, NYC students in grades K through 12 use the blocky video game platform to reimagine their environments in more sustainable and inclusive ways. 

The challenge was launched in 2020 as a global initiative for teachers and students to connect virtually during the pandemic. With its expanding popularity, the competition went through a couple iterations specifically tailored to NYC, resulting in the Battle of the Boroughs in 2023. The program works in collaboration with the Mayor’s office and the Department of Education. 

“We took it upon ourselves to start imagining and building what an eSports program would look like in New York City,” Jose Perez said, director of instructional technology at NYC Public Schools. “We didn’t want the kids just playing, we wanted students to be exposed to know, ‘you can build, you can create.’” 

Out of 3,259 applicants, 175 participated in the semi-finals at Roosevelt High School earlier this month, broken up into elementary, junior high and high school, including an all-girls team of 6th graders from P.S. 86 The Kingsbridge Heights School.  

Led by their computer science teacher Kim Judin, Yoselin, Zeynabou, Pearl, Emily and Sadika worked together to address the prompt – create a fun, welcoming, sustainable, space on the Orchard Beach waterfront where everyone in the community can play, enjoy themselves and feel like they belong. 

This was the second time competing for the group. 

“To be honest, this year was a bit more intimidating since we were the younger grade,” Emily said, as her teammate Pearl sat beside her in nodding her head. “I just focused on what I do best in the build, which is Redstone.”     The latter speaks of a specific building block used in the Minecraft platform.

The teams typically have three months to prepare, but this year P.S. 86 entered the project at the last minute and the students sacrificed their spring break to spend the time studying instead. The day of the challenge, they were given 30 minutes to brainstorm and 30 minutes to build. Through ingenuity and collaboration, they came up with the idea to implement solar panels on Orchard Beach, build moveable infrastructure to allow access to people with wheelchairs and provide bilingual signage for the largely Hispanic demographic that visits the beach in all kinds of weather. 

Three teams from each borough advanced to the finals -- P.S. 86 was not one of them. The Bronx winners were returning elementary school champions, P.S. 100 in Soundview; The City Island School for middle school and The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology in the South Bronx for high school.

But participation wasn’t without its merits. 

“I think for me, it’s just like working with everybody and being on a team, being able to bond,” one of the girls said, to which all agreed. 

The Mayor’s Cup Finals are scheduled for May 31.